Gasoline and diesel engines are ubiquitous and vital to the economies of nations throughout the world. Vehicle engines, compressor engines, aircraft engines, boat or ship engines, heavy duty diesel truck engines and other heavy duty diesel equipment, engines, motors, and the like, while crucial to the advancement of modern society, share certain traits: they depend on increasingly expensive oil and fuel resources, and can generate harmful toxins and emissions.
Conventional attempts to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions have inevitably increased the sheer complexity of gasoline and diesel engines, and their related control systems, which has resulted in significant cost increases. Such “built-in” complexity and associated costs are most often borne by the bottom line of companies and the pocket book of consumers. While any approach to improve fuel efficiency or reduce harmful releases of toxins is laudable, if the costs for doing so out-weigh the benefits of implementation, then the adoption rate might be slow. Conversely, if the benefits outweigh the costs, this, in turn, would inexorably lead to wider adoption of the technology, and as a result, a beneficial result for society.
Generally, attempts to improve engine efficiencies have typically focused on the addition of complex control systems such as fuel injection systems, computerized monitoring systems, turbo charged systems, hybridization, and other tightly controlled and coordinated valve systems. Even where gains are made using such systems, unnecessary difficulty, complexity and expenditures are usually at least some of the outcomes. Moreover, government regulations are generally becoming increasingly stringent in the areas of clean air, required fuel economies, and so forth, and the conventional approaches in the art are likely insufficient to address current and future concerns in this area. Accordingly, a need remains for an improved apparatus, system, and method for improving fuel efficiency and reducing harmful emissions in gasoline and diesel engines.
The foregoing and other features of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.